Moroccan Chicken Paella

Serves 6

This is more ambitious than most of our Sunday Supper recipes. We did it one Sunday night when we had friends over for Sunday Supper.

Prepare ahead:

• Roast one green and one red pepper (use some spicy peppers to add more zip). Remove the charred skin and cut the flesh into small cubes.
  
• Cook 2 Aidell's Chorizo-style Sausages. Cool and cut into thin slices.
  
• Cut some tasso into very small cubes.
  
• Roast one small chicken. Let cool and then shred meat into bite size pieces.
  
• Chop 4-5 wedges of Moroccan-style preserved lemons.
  
• Soak a handful of raisins in white vermouth.

To make the rice:

2 cups basmati rice
3 - 3½ cups chicken broth
1 - 1½ cups chopped canned tomatoes
2 cloves minced garlic
1 onion finely chopped
Mexican dry oregano
Saffron threads

• Sauté onion in olive oil. Add minced garlic and oregano and cook for few minutes. Add rice and cook at fairly high heat until rice turns milky white in color (watch carefully so rice does not burn). Turn down heat, add tomatoes and stir until liquid is absorbed by the rice.
  
• Heat chicken broth and add saffron. After rice has absorbed the tomato liquid, add hot chicken broth, chopped lemons and raisins. Cover and cook on very low flame, about 20 - 30 minutes.
  
• When rice is tender, add peppers, tasso and sausages. Mix well.

Serving:

Put the rice mixture into a large paella-type serving dish or individual bouillabaisse bowls and arrange chicken on top. Serve immediately.

Notes:

• Chorizo: I used Aidell's Chorizo-style Sausages. If they aren't available in your area, any smoky, strong-flavored sausage will do fine.
  
• Tasso: This is cured pork with a spicy outer crust. It is used in very small quantities. The spiciness goes very well with the preserved lemon and saffron flavors in the rice. You could use smoked ham instead of tasso, but you might want to let it sit in a mixture of a little cayenne and chili powder to get about the same effect as tasso.
  
• Preserved lemons: These are very simple to make, but take at least 7 days to cure. If you plan to make this dish using Moroccan-style preserved lemons, you should start 7 days ahead. They keep indefinitely in the refrigerator. If you don't have preserved lemons readily available, you can quickly make an acceptable substitute by thinly slicing a fresh lemon and sautéing it slowly in olive oil, a little sugar and salt until very tender. Chop into small pieces and use the same as preserved lemons.

  To make preserved lemons:
  
  Cut small, thin skinned whole lemons into quarter sections down to about ¼" of the base (keeping the lemon whole). Fan open the whole, quartered lemon and sprinkle with 2 TBS kosher salt.

  Put prepared lemons into a jar and sprinkle with more a few more TBS of kosher salt. Cover jar and put in cool place. Invert every other day for 7 days to distribute the salt and accumulated juices evenly.

• Garlic: I always cut each clove in half and remove the little green sprout in the center core before mincing. This sprout is indigestible and bitter.
  
• Mexican oregano: I use Mexican oregano, which has a more pungent flavor than common dried oregano (could be mistaken for marijuana). This kind of oregano lends itself especially well to being toasted in a dry pan before using, to develop a smoky aroma. It is available in Hispanic grocery stores or by mail order from Penzeys, Ltd., P.O. Box 1448, Waukesha, WI 53187. Telephone (414) 574-0277; fax (414) 574-0278; http://www.execpc.com/~penzeys.
  
• Saffron: For 2 cups of rice, I used about 20 threads. Penzeys also offers good saffron by mail order.